Several years ago I received a visit from a pair of deaf
Jehovah's Witnesses who had targeted me as a mission prospect. It was a quiet
Saturday afternoon, and I had time to spare, so I invited them in.

The older man was training his young young assistant in
the art of Witnessing for Jehovah. They arrived assuming that I was also
deaf.

When I asked how they found me, the older fellow didn't
want to answer, so the younger man admitted that they found
my name in the local TTY directory.

JW:

"We are here to tell you what we believe."

RF:

"Wonderful! Please tell me!"

JW:

"Here, this book explains what we believe" (trying to hand me the standard JW tutorial
for new prospects, a little blue book I have seen many times where JWs were
proselytizing their newest victims).

RF:

(Refusing to take
the book.) "No, I would rather you tell me yourself what you believe."

(JW repeats his attempt to hand me the book, and
I repeat my reason for not accepting it.)

JW:

"Well..." (Clearly
uncomfortable with unscripted dialogue) "The Bible says... (The JW sign for BIBLE is LAW with a "B" handshape.)
"The Bible says that there is no hell."

RF:

"Oh, really!? Where does the Bible say that?"

JW:

"Ecclesiastes 3:19 & 20 -- 'For what happens
to the sons of men also happens to animals; one thing befalls them: as one
dies, so dies the other. Surely, they all have one breath; man has no advantage
over animals, for all is vanity. All go to one place: all are from the dust,
and all return to dust.'

RF:

"That is interesting. Would you mind if we opened
our Bibles and take a look at that verse?" (JWs love to quote Scripture
out of context. You can easily correct them by leading them back into the
context of the verses they quote.)

JWs

(Both look startled. It seems that no one had ever
suggested that to them before. They looked at each other. Then they looked
at me. Then they look at each other again.) "Okay, yes." (They shrug, as
if it say, "Why not? It can't hurt.")

(I read the text, and found that they had quoted
it accurately.)

RF:

"Yes, that is what it says. But for me to understand
any verse of the Bible, I must read that verse in its context. So to understand
Ecclesiastes 3:19 & 20, I must back up and see what the whole chapter
says. Let's back up and start in chapter 2, verse 12."

JW:

"No, no. Only those two verses!"

RF:

(smile)
"Sorry. A verse out of context can mean anything. The verses that come before
and after explain what the verse means." (I then read Ecc. 2:12-17) "Is that really true!?"

(We continue this same routine all the way to 3:18
-- all of it is "only figurative.")

RF:

(Reading Ecc.
3:19-20 again -- the text that started our discussion) "Is that really
true?"

JW:

"YES! Really!"

(Then reading on to the end of chapter 3, we learn
that the rest of it is only "figurative.")

RF:

"How is it that all the verses in these two chapters
are only figurative, but for some reason you have not yet explained, right
in the middle are these two verses that are 'really true?' Why do you change
the way you interpret this text? I don't see anything in this text that alerts
me that the writer changed his intention."

JW:

(Ignoring my question, he attempted to change the
topic to another doctrinal issue important to Jehovah's Witnesses - I don't
remember what it was.)

RF:

"Hold on! We are not finished with this topic yet.
You say that there is no hell, and in support of that idea, you quote only
one pair of verses, which are in a context that is, by your own admission,
figurative! I, on the other hand, have a Bible full of many discussions and
descriptions of hell. In fact, are you aware that the Bible talks much about
hell than it does heaven?"

JW:

(Startled and
skeptical) "No."

RF:

"Let me show you." (I close my eyes, and "randomly" open my Bible
-- aiming for the Gospels, put my finger on the page, and open my eyes, to
find that I landed on Parable of the Wedding Feast [Matthew 22]. I read it to the JWs.)

"Really?" (Several
times I repeat the random discovery of texts about hell - from both the Gospels
and Revelation. Some texts are parables; some are Jesus' direct instruction,
such as Matthew 5:22, 29; 10:28, all eliciting the same response, "figurative.")

RF:

"Now
I have given you many verses that in various
ways identify and describe an eternal hell. But you say they are ALL
figurative. One short text, which is embedded in context you describe
as figurative,
is an absolutely literally true denial of the existence of hell. On
what
basis do you make that determination - that one verse is true, and all
these
other clear teachings of Jesus about hell are figurative?"

"I have a neighbor, who calls himself an atheist.
And he says exactly the same thing as you teach. You two must be getting
your information from the same source. Do you realize that you can make the Bible say anything
you want, simply by choosing only the verses that appear to fit your doctrine
and rejecting the rest?"

JW:

(appearing surprised)
"No, we didn't know that. We thought we were suppose to read
only the verses we can easily understand, and skip the rest."

RF:

"You don't read the newspaper that way. You don't
read letters from your friends that way. You don't read TTY messages that
way. You can only understand a single sentence anyone writes by reading the
whole document.

"Do you know what the message and purpose of Ecclesiastes
is?"

JW:

"No."(looking very
curious.)

I explained to them that King Solomon was wise and good
when he was young (See 1 Kings 3). That was probably when he wrote Proverbs
and Song of Solomon. But the Bible explains that King Solomon grew spiritually
lazy and careless. He built temples to idols for his many foreign wives,
and he went to those temples to worship those idols. (See 1 Kings 11:1-8) In Solomon's old age, seeing that he
had wasted his life, foolishly failing to follow his own advice in Proverbs,
he looked back on his life through his worldly eyes, and realized how foolish
he had been (Ecclesiastes 2:10-11). Now it all looked "meaningless!"
(Ecclesiastes 1:2) From Solomon's worldly point of view,
people are no better off than animals (Ecclesiastes 3:19-20 -- the same text that JWs use
to argue "there is no hell"). By the end of the book, Solomon counsels young
people not to make the same mistake that he did (Ecclesiastes 12:1, 6-7).
We also discussed the meaning of the name JEHOVAH. They understood that
Jehovah is just a variation of the more correct spelling of God's name: YAHWEH.
But they didn't know why or how Yahweh got changed to Jehovah. So I was
able to teach them that, also.

A few years later, I had a visit from a couple well dressed young men (hearing),
who were going door-to-door. They said, "We are from a nearby Bible college
and we are in the neighborhood telling people about our faith."

What Bible college? What group did they represent?

They didn't want to tell me. But when they realized that they would not
be able to discuss anything more with me until they told who they were, they
admitted that they were Jehovah's Witnesses.

Then they gave me a couple familiar looking booklets from the Watchtower
and Tract Society. I set the books down on a table near our front door while
they talked. In order to "prove" to me that Jesus was not God, but only
a creature created by God, they read Colossians 1:15-17 in the JW "New World
Translation:"

"He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn
of all creation; because by means of him all [other] things were created
in the heavens and upon the earth, the things visible and the things invisible,
no matter whether they are thrones or lordships or governments or authorities.
All [other] things have been created through him and for him. Also, he is
before all [other] things and by means of him all [other] things were made
to exist."

Notice the word "other" in brackets four
times. That means the word "other" is not in the original Greek text of
the New Testament, but the Jehovah's Witnesses have added that word to their
translation.

When I told the two young men about this error, they objected, "Oh, but it
means the same thing!" Sorry, not true! JWs add the word "other" to mean that Christ was created first,
then He created everything else. However, if the text is translated accurately
from the Greek, then it proves that Jesus Christ is, indeed, true God. Try
reading that text above, omitting the four "others," which JWs have added.
You will see clearly, "All
things have been created through Him... He is before all things..." A very different
meaning!

The two Witnesses for Jehovah realized that they would not win me as a convert,
so they politely brought the conversation to a close and began to leave.
But as they left, one of them asked a favor. "Please read the material we
gave you," he said, "because Jehovah will
love me more if you do."
Here you see clearly that the religion of Jehovah's Witness is a religion
of works, not of grace. This is why Deaf JWs sign the word "Bible" as "law."
By keeping the Law of Jehovah, they hope to be earn enough points to be included
in the resurrection.

I answered this young man, "Oh, my friend, I have the most wonderful news
for you! Jehovah already loves you with an infinitely perfect love. There
is nothing you can do to make Jehovah love you more than He already does!
There is nothing I can do to make Him love you more!"

He became embarrassed by his mistake, and said, "Yes, you
are absolutely right. Thank you. Good-bye." He would not give me any more
chance to tell him about Jesus the Savior.

For an PDF file briefly explaining the history
and teachings of Jehovah's Witnesses, click here.

Also click
here for an explanation of the JW New World Translation, and click here for a summary the JW doctrine that contradicts
the Bible clear teaching.